Whiteside David I, Chambi-Trowell Sofía A V, Benton Michael J
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK.
Palaeontology Section, Earth Science Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
Sci Adv. 2022 Dec 2;8(48):eabq8274. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abq8274.
Mammals, birds, and squamates (lizards, snakes, and relatives) are key living vertebrates, and thus understanding their evolution underpins important questions in biodiversity science. Whereas the origins of mammals and birds are relatively well understood, the roots of squamates have been obscure. Here, we report a modern-type lizard from the Late Triassic of England [202 million years (Ma)], comprising a partial skeleton, skull, and mandibles. It displays at least 15 unique squamate traits and further shares unidentatan and anguimorph apomorphies. The new discovery fixes the origin of crown Squamata as much older than had been thought, and the revised dating shows substantial diversification of modern-type squamates following the Carnian Pluvial Episode, 232 Ma ago.
哺乳动物、鸟类和有鳞目动物（蜥蜴、蛇及相关物种）是现存的关键脊椎动物，因此了解它们的进化是生物多样性科学中重要问题的基础。虽然哺乳动物和鸟类的起源相对较为清楚，但有鳞目动物的起源却一直模糊不清。在此，我们报道了一种来自英国晚三叠世（2.02亿年前）的现代型蜥蜴，它包括部分骨骼、头骨和下颌骨。它至少展现出15种独特的有鳞目动物特征，并且还具有双孔类和蛇蜥类的共有衍征。这一新发现确定有鳞目冠群的起源比之前认为的要早得多，并且经修订后的年代测定显示，现代型有鳞目动物在2.32亿年前的卡尼期洪积事件之后出现了大量分化。
